Feasts of the world
Should we keep the feasts of the world like Christmas, Easter and Halloween? Where do they come from and what does the bible say about them?
[Exo 19:3-6 ESV] 3 while Moses went up to Elohim. YHWH called to him out of the mountain, saying, "Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the people of Israel: 4 'You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself.
5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; 6 and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel."
[Exo 23:23-24 ESV] 23 "When my angel goes before you and brings you to the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, and I blot them out,
24 you shall not bow down to their gods nor serve them, nor do as they do, but you shall utterly overthrow them and break their pillars in pieces.
[Lev 18:1-4 ESV] 1 And YHWH spoke to Moses, saying, 2 "Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, I am YHWH your Elohim. 3 You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and you shall not do as they do in the .
land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. You shall not walk in their statutes 4 You shall follow my rules and keep my statutes and walk in them. I am YHWH your Elohim.
[Lev 19:1-2 ESV] 1 And YHWH spoke to Moses, saying, 2 "Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them,
You shall be holy, for I YHWH your God am holy.
[Lev 20:22-26 ESV] 22 "You shall therefore keep all my statutes and all my rules and do them, that the land where I am bringing you to live may not vomit you out. 23 And you shall not walk in the customs of the nation that I am driving out before you, for they did all these things, and therefore I detested them. 24 But I have said to you, 'You shall inherit their land, and I will give it to you to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey.' I am YHWH your God,
who has separated you from the peoples. 25 You shall therefore separate the clean beast from the unclean, and the unclean bird from the clean. You shall not make yourselves detestable by beast or by bird or by anything with which the ground crawls, which I have set apart for you to hold unclean. 26 You shall be holy to me, for I YHWH am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine.
[Deu 4:5-8 ESV] 5 See, I have taught you statutes and rules, as YHWH my God commanded me, that you should do them in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. 6 Keep them and do them, for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, 'Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding
people.' 7 For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as YHWH our God is to us, whenever we call upon him? 8 And what great nation is there, that has statutes and rules so righteous as all this law that I set before you today?
[Deu 4:15-20 ESV] 15 "Therefore watch yourselves very carefully. Since you saw no form on the day that YHWH spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, 16 beware lest you act corruptly by making a carved image for yourselves, in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, 17 the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, 18 the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth. 19 And beware lest you
raise your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them, things that YHWH your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven. 20 But YHWH has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be a people of his own inheritance, as you are this day.
[Deu 4:32-39 ESV] 32 "For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether such a great thing as this has ever happened or was ever heard of. 33 Did any people ever hear the voice of a god speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and still live? 34 Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, and by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great deeds of terror, all of which YHWH your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? 35 To you it was shown, that
you might know that YHWH is God; there is no other besides him. 36 Out of heaven he let you hear his voice, that he might discipline you. And on earth he let you see his great fire, and you heard his words out of the midst of the fire. 37 And because he loved your fathers and chose their offspring after them and brought you out of Egypt with his own presence, by his great power, 38 driving out before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land for an inheritance, as it is this day, 39 know therefore today, and lay it to your heart, that YHWH is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other.
[Deu 12:29-32 ESV] 29 "When YHWH your God cuts off before you the nations whom you go in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, 30 take care that you be not ensnared to follow them, after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, 'How did these nations serve their gods?--that I also may do the same.'
31 You shall not worship YHWH your God in that way, for every abominable thing that YHWH hates they have done for their gods, for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods. 32 "Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do. You shall not add to it or take from it.
[Jos 24:14-15 ESV] 14 "Now therefore fear YHWH and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve YHWH. 15 And if it is evil in your eyes to serve YHWH, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the
gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve YHWH."
[1Ki 18:21 ESV] 21 And Elijah came near to all the people and said, "How long will you go limping between two different opinions?
If YHWH is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him." And the people did not answer him a word.
[2Ki 17:6-12 ESV] 6 In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria, and he carried the Israelites away to Assyria and placed them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes. 7 And this occurred because the people of Israel had sinned against YHWH their God, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods 8 and walked in the customs of the nations whom YHWH drove out before the people of Israel, and in the customs that the kings of Israel had practiced.
9 And the people of Israel did secretly against YHWH their God things that were not right. They built for themselves high places in all their towns, from watchtower to fortified city. 10 They set up for themselves pillars and Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree, 11 and there they made offerings on all the high places, as the nations did whom YHWH carried away before them. And they did wicked things, provoking YHWH to anger, 12 and they served idols, of which YHWH had said to them, "You shall not do this."
[2Ki 17:15-19 ESV] 15 They despised his statutes and his covenant that he made with their fathers and the warnings that he gave them. They went after false idols and became false, and they followed the nations that were around them, concerning whom YHWH had commanded them that they should not do like them. 16 And they abandoned all the commandments of YHWH their God, and made for themselves metal images of two calves; and they made an Asherah and worshiped all the host of heaven and served Baal.
17 And they burned their sons and their daughters as offerings and used divination and omens and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of YHWH, provoking him to anger. 18 Therefore YHWH was very angry with Israel and removed them out of his sight. None was left but the tribe of Judah only. 19 Judah also did not keep the commandments of YHWH their God, but walked in the customs that Israel had introduced.
[2Ki 17:24-35, 41 ESV] 24 And the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the people of Israel. And they took possession of Samaria and lived in its cities. 25 And at the beginning of their dwelling there, they did not fear YHWH. Therefore YHWH sent lions among them, which killed some of them. 26 So the king of Assyria was told, "The nations that you have carried away and placed in the cities of Samaria do not know the law of the god of the land. Therefore he has sent lions among them, and behold, they are killing them, because they do not know the law of the god of the land." 27 Then the king of Assyria commanded, "Send there one of the priests whom you carried away from there, and let him go and dwell there and teach them the law of the god of the land." 28 So one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and lived in Bethel and taught them how they should fear YHWH. 29 But every nation still made gods of its own and put them in the shrines of the high places that the Samaritans had made, every nation in the cities in which they lived. 30 The men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth,
the men of Cuth made Nergal, the men of Hamath made Ashima, 31 and the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak; and the Sepharvites burned their children in the fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim. 32 They also feared YHWH and appointed from among themselves all sorts of people as priests of the high places, who sacrificed for them in the shrines of the high places. 33 So they feared YHWH but also served their own gods, after the manner of the nations from among whom they had been carried away. 34 To this day they do according to the former manner. They do not fear YHWH, and they do not follow the statutes or the rules or the law or the commandment that YHWH commanded the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel. 35 YHWH made a covenant with them and commanded them, "You shall not fear other gods or bow yourselves to them or serve them or sacrifice to them, ... 41 So these nations feared YHWH and also served their carved images. Their children did likewise, and their children's children--as their fathers did, so they do to this day.
[Jer 10:1-5 ESV] 1 Hear the word that YHWH speaks to you, O house of Israel. 2 Thus says YHWH: "Learn not the way of the nations, nor be dismayed at the signs of the heavens because the nations are dismayed at them, 3 for the customs of the peoples are vanity. A tree from the forest is cut down and worked with an axe by the hands of a craftsman. 4 They decorate it
with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so that it cannot move. 5 Their idols are like scarecrows in a cucumber field, and they cannot speak; they have to be carried, for they cannot walk. Do not be afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, neither is it in them to do good."
[Jer 7:18-20 ESV] 18 The children gather wood, the fathers kindle fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven. And they pour out drink offerings to other gods, to provoke me to anger. 19 Is it I whom they provoke? declares YHWH. Is it not themselves, to their own shame? 20
Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, my anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place, upon man and beast, upon the trees of the field and the fruit of the ground; it will burn and not be quenched."
[Jer 44:17-27 ESV] 17 But we will do everything that we have vowed, make offerings to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her, as we did, both we and our fathers, our kings and our officials, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of food, and prospered, and saw no disaster. 18 But since we left off making offerings to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything and have been consumed by the sword and by famine." 19 And the women said, "When we made offerings to the queen of heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, was it without our husbands' approval that we made cakes for her bearing her image and poured out drink offerings to her?" 20 Then Jeremiah said to all the people, men and women, all the people who had given him this answer: 21 "As for the offerings that you offered in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, you and your fathers, your kings and your officials, and the people of the land, did not YHWH remember them? Did it not come into his mind? 22 YHWH could no longer bear your evil deeds and the abominations that you committed. Therefore your land has become a
desolation and a waste and a curse, without inhabitant, as it is this day. 23 It is because you made offerings and because you sinned against YHWH and did not obey the voice of YHWH or walk in his law and in his statutes and in his testimonies that this disaster has happened to you, as at this day." 24 Jeremiah said to all the people and all the women, "Hear the word of YHWH, all you of Judah who are in the land of Egypt. 25 Thus says YHWH of hosts, the God of Israel: You and your wives have declared with your mouths, and have fulfilled it with your hands, saying, 'We will surely perform our vows that we have made, to make offerings to the queen of heaven and to pour out drink offerings to her.' Then confirm your vows and perform your vows! 26 Therefore hear the word of YHWH, all you of Judah who dwell in the land of Egypt: Behold, I have sworn by my great name, says YHWH, that my name shall no more be invoked by the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, 'As the Lord GOD lives.' 27 Behold, I am watching over them for disaster and not for good. All the men of Judah who are in the land of Egypt shall be consumed by the sword and by famine, until there is an end of them.
[1Ki 11:4-6 NET] 4 When Solomon became old, his wives shifted his allegiance to other gods; he was not wholeheartedly devoted to YHWH his God, as his father David had been. 5 Solomon worshiped the Sidonian goddess Astarte
and the detestable Ammonite god Milcom. 6 Solomon did evil in YHWH's sight; he did not remain loyal to YHWH, like his father David had.
[2Ki 23:11-14, 21-23 NET] 11 He (Josiah) removed from the entrance to YHWH's temple the statues of horses that the kings of Judah had placed there in honor of the sun god. (They were kept near the room of Nathan Melech the eunuch, which was situated among the courtyards.) He burned up the chariots devoted to the sun god. 12 The king tore down the altars the kings of Judah had set up on the roof of Ahaz's upper room, as well as the altars Manasseh had set up in the two courtyards of YHWH's temple. He crushed them up and threw the dust in the Kidron Valley. 13 The king ruined the high places east of Jerusalem, south of the Mount of Destruction, that King Solomon of Israel had
built for the detestable Sidonian goddess Astarte, the detestable Moabite god Chemosh, and the horrible Ammonite god Milcom. 14 He smashed the sacred pillars to bits, cut down the Asherah pole, and filled those shrines with human bones. ... 21 The king ordered all the people, "Observe the Passover of YHWH your God, as prescribed in this scroll of the covenant." 22 He issued this edict because a Passover like this had not been observed since the days of the judges; it was neglected for the entire period of the kings of Israel and Judah. 23 But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah's reign, such a Passover of YHWH was observed in Jerusalem.
Word Study
Astarte
Hebrew Word
עַשְׁתֹּרֶת
Transliteration
ash-to'reth
Outline of biblical Usage:
Ashtoreth = "star", the principal female deity of the Phoenicians worshipped in war and fertility, also 'Ishtar' of Assyria and 'Astarte' by the Greeks and Romans
Strong's:
H6253
Hebrew Word
עַשְׁתָּרוֹת
Transliteration
ash-ter-aw
Outline of biblical Usage:
ewe, flock, increase, young
Strong's:
H6251
Hebrew Root Word
עָשַׁר
Transliteration
aw-shar
Outline of biblical Usage:
to be or become rich or wealthy, enrich, pretend to be rich
Strong's:
H6238
What does the New Testament say?
[Mat 5:13-19 ESV] 13 "You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. 14 "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
17 "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. 19 Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
[Mat 6:19-24 ESV] 19 "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 22 "The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is
healthy, your whole body will be full of light, 23 but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! 24 "No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
[Jhn 14:15, 21-24, 27, 30 ESV] 15 "If you love me, you will keep my commandments. ... 21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him." 22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, "master, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?" 23 Jesus answered him, "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will
love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me. ... 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. ... 30 I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me...
[Jhn 15:18-19 ESV] 18 "If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its
own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
[Jhn 17:6-18, 25 ESV] 6 "I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7 Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. 8 For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. 9 I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. 11 And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I kept them in your name,
which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. 13 But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. 14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. ... 25 O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me.
[1Jo 2:3-7, 15-17 ESV] 3 And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. 4 Whoever says "I know him" but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, 5 but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: 6 whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. 7 Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is
the word that you have heard. ... 15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world--the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life--is not from the Father but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
[1Jo 3:13-14 ESV] 13 Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed out of death into life,
because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death.
[1Jo 5:17-19 ESV] 17 All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death. 18 We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not
touch him. 19 We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.
[Jas 1:27 ESV] 27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this:
to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
[Jas 4:4 ESV] 4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?
Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
[1Pe 1:13-16 ESV] 13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Yehoshua the anointed. 14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to
the passions of your former ignorance, 15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, "You shall be holy, for I am holy."
[Rom 12:1-2 ESV] 1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be
transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
[Col 2:8 ESV] 8 See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to the anointed.
[Eph 2:10-12 ESV] 10 For we are his workmanship, created in the anointed Yehoshua for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. 11 Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called "the uncircumcision" by what is called the circumcision, which is
made in the flesh by hands-- 12 remember that you were at that time separated from the anointed, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
[Eph 5:6-11 ESV] 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. 7 Therefore do not become partners with them; 8 for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in YHWH. Walk as children of light 9 (for the
fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), 10 and try to discern what is pleasing to YHWH. 11 Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.
All praise to God
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What does it mean to live a set apart lifestyle? Can you be worldly and live a set apart lifestyle? This category contains a collection of studies that helps to answer that question.
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